I have an android project with following structure:
-- Calendar
------app (app module)
----------build.gradle (module level)
------build.gradle (project level)
------Commons(A common project which i reuse across various projects)
----------common (common module in Commons project)
-------------build.gradle (for only common module level)
----------build.gradle(for Commons Project)
Now the problem is that if I compile Commons, deploy it to bintray and then use it as implementation 'com.amitkma.Commons:common:1.0.0' in app module, all the dependencies (which are implemented in common build.gradle) is available to use in app module also. But if I use it like following
implementation project(:Commons:common), only dependencies provided using api is available to use.
I want to know what is the difference between api and implementation with respect to module is compiled or used directly like above?
There are two things at play here:
The separation of api and implementation when declaring dependencies. In short dependencies in the implementation scope are only visible at runtime because they are an implementation detail. Such libraries will use the runtime scope in their published Maven metadata. More information in the documentation
Before Gradle 5.0, the Maven metadata scopes compile and runtime were mixed by Gradle and thus all runtime dependencies did appear on the compile classpath. Gradle 5 changes this
So when you publish your component, the limitation of Gradle 4.x means that your common dependencies are available to app. Note that moving to Gradle 5 will cause a breakage there, as documented.
And when you use the project directly, the separation is properly enforced.
The fix is to simply promote dependencies that are part of the common api to the api configuration in common and for the runtime ones, declare them in app as after all they are directly required by it.
Related
I want to publish a common build script which i will include across various projects in my application.
This will contain only the common set of dependencies, i.e dependencies with particular versions that will be common across all the artifacts in my enterprise application..
My applications will refer to this file from the url.
How can i achieve this?
EDIT1: my exploration in this direction is based on this answer on SO:
How to share a common build.gradle via a repository?
There are a few different options for this.
One is to publish a project with the dependencies you want to share defined as API dependencies. Projects that depend on this will inherit the dependencies.
Or you could write and publish a Gradle plugin that will configure your projects with the common dependencies. Projects can apply the plugin, and will automatically be configured in a certain way. (You don't need to publish a plugin to do this - first try creating a project-local buildSrc convention plugin.)
I would actually recommend neither of these approaches.
It's easy to get into a tangled web of dependency hell when transitive dependencies are inherited. It's likely that at some point some dependency will clash, and excluding dependencies can be a big headache, and will easily cancel out any benefit in trying to reduce a little duplication.
Additionally, it's nice when a project is explicit about its dependencies. Being able to look at a build.gradle.kts and understand exactly what dependencies are set is very convenient.
Instead, what I would recommend is controlling the versions of common dependencies in a central location. This can be achieved with the Java Platform plugin. This plugin can be applied to a single build.gradle.kts file, and it lists all versions of all possible dependencies. (It can also import existing Maven BOMs, like the Spring Boot BOM).
Now, all subprojects can add a platform dependency on the 'Java Platform' project.
dependencies {
// import the platform from a Maven repo
implementation(platform("my.company:my-shared-platform:1.2.3"))
// or import a platform from a local project
implementation(platform(":my-project:version-platform"))
// no need to define a version, if it's defined in the platform
implementation("com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind")
}
This is the best of both worlds. Projects can be explicit about their dependencies, retain autonomy, while the versions can be aligned across independent projects.
Having hard time to describe this and I bet this is something very simple, but I just can't google sollution.
I am using many modules in my project. For simple argument let's say I have modules A and B.
B depends on A.
When I add dependency to external library (using implementation keyword) in module A to use some of it's code in the module, I cannot access library's code in project B. How can I achieve that? I would like A to be my "base" project with all dependencies in that place rather than having to repeat myself in other modules, that depend on it.
The implementation configuration means the dependencies are internal (implementation specific) for the project and should not be exposed on the compilation classpath of other dependent projects. This helps encapsulate dependencies and speeds up the build as you don't need to recompile dependent projects if you only change internal dependencies.
If you want to expose them, you need to use the api configuration instead, along with the java-library plugin.
I have the following Java projects structure:
Util
|
-- Core
|
-- Services
|
-- Tools
The projects: Tools and Services references to Core and Util projects, the thing is that I ended up writing the same dependency over each project, there must be a better way to inherit the dependencies of the referenced projects and add new ones if needed.
I know about multi projects in Gradle, but this is not like a multi project, since I can basically take the Core library, compile it (which will then contain Core + Util libs) and use it in another project.
I wonder what would be the best way to approach this?
Repeating the same dependencies in every project is usually reasonable because in a bigger project you'll never know when they become different, and you don't want to deal with compilation/runtime problems when someone changes common dependencies list.
I believe that it is more pragmatic to add dependency analyser plugin to your build. It will help you to remove unnecessary dependencies and explicitly add transitive dependencies. And if you add this plugin to your build chain, it will help you to keep your dependencies healthy in the future. Pick this plugin here gradle-dependency-analyze, or maybe there is a better fork or equivalent somewhere.
You are actually out of options in your case because there are only two kinds of dependencies: (1) external (some other jar artefact) or (2) internal (another module in a multimodule build).
2.1 When you use an external maven-like dependency it will come to you with own dependencies (they are named "transitive dependencies"). It means that if you do compile 'yourgroup:Core:1.0' then you will get Util as a transitive dependency. But as I mentioned above, it is better to list transitive dependencies explicitly if they are used during compilation or to prevent them from being accidentally removed and crash your application in runtime.
2.2. If your projects live in the same version control repository and usually change and build together, then the multimodule layout is your best choice. In this case, you will refer to Core dependency like compile project(':Util:Core') and it will grab Util as a transitive dependency as well. And you will be able to do what you asked for and define dependencies for Services and Tools once - inside subprojects {} closure in the Core/build.gradle.
Having multimodule built doesn't limit you from using Core library elsewhere. No matter if it is a multimodule build or not, you can always add maven-publish plugin to Core/build.gradle, execute publishToMavenLocal task and reference to Core.jar from another project the same way you do for external dependencies.
You can always put your common code (like the one which will add common dependencies) in the external gradle file or custom plugin and apply it in Services and Tools.
Ive been working off the guides which mention to start by doing
gradle init
on the project. So this creates build.grade. However, the rest of the gradle file is very thinly padded. Im quite new to doing these conversions, but broadly speaking, what would be the next step to get things in harmony?
The Gradle docs lists the following features of the Maven POM conversion:
Uses effective POM and effective settings (support for POM inheritance, dependency management, properties)
Supports both single module and multimodule projects
Supports custom module names (that differ from directory names)
Generates general metadata - id, description and version
Applies maven, java and war plugins (as needed)
Supports packaging war projects as jars if needed
Generates dependencies (both external and inter-module)
Generates download repositories (inc. local Maven repository)
Adjusts Java compiler settings
Supports packaging of sources and tests
Supports TestNG runner
Generates global exclusions from Maven enforcer plugin settings
This means, every required functionality beyond these features must be added manually, either by searching and applying plugins equivalent to the ones used in Maven or by implementing the functionality on your own.
When using some 3rd party libraries, I add a dependency to my module's build.gradle file.
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:24.1.1'
Or I add a plugin
apply plugin: 'com.neenbedankt.android-apt'
Some other times, the library requires adding a dependency to my app's build.gradle file.
classpath 'com.neenbedankt.gradle.plugins:android-apt:1.8'
What is the difference between these dependencies and plugins?
Why can't they all be set in a single build.gradle file?
All suggestions are appreciated, I'm having trouble searching for info on this
Three things. Gradle plugin, module dependency, a build dependency which is placed on the classpath of the build tool.
A plugin is how Gradle knows what tasks to use. There are many plugins. For more info, see Gradle - Plugin Documentation
A dependency is a library that is compiled with your code. The following line makes your module depend on the Android AppCompat V7 library. For the most part, you search Maven or Jcenter for these.
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:24.1.1'
The classpath setting is needed for Gradle, not your app. For example, this allows this includes the Gradle Build Tools for Android into the classpath, and allows Gradle to build apps.
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.1.2'
Why can't they all be in one build.gradle file?
They probably can be. It is simply more modular to not.
I got this answer from a colleague, and this helped me understand. "A gradle plugin is like the tools you use to build the app. The dependencies are the libraries included in the app. A gradle plugin is usually the tasks - like ktlint, etc."
I didn't understand this myself so here is what i found. My answer is based on gradle build tool.
Plugins:
Add additional tasks, repositories, new DSL elements, configuration for classpaths/build/run or dependency management for subsequent development. Plugins are developed for a larger scope of development like java, kotlin or spring-boot.
Dependencies:
modules/libraries for tasks like http, serialization or database are dependencies stored remotely at repositories or locally that are needed at runTime, test or build are resolved by gradle in a configured fashion.
Sources:
Spring boot gradle plugin: https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/tree/master/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-tools/spring-boot-gradle-plugin
Gradle documentation on plugins/dependencies: https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/plugins.html
https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/core_dependency_management.html
Remote repositories:
https://mvnrepository.com/
In simple words:
Plugins are used to add some additonal features to the software/tools(like Gradle). Gradle will use the added plugins at the time of building the App.
Dependecies are used to add some addtional code to your source code, so a dependency will make some extra code (like Classes in Java) in the form of library available for your source code.